I woke up in the hotel room, sweating, tense and all out of breath. I was clutching the sheets for dear life, afraid that if I let go, I might get sucked back into the nightmare. I flinched when I heard the bathroom door open. I could smell Ben’s aftershave mixed with the fragrances of shampoo and soap. I stirred on the bed trying to shake off the effects the nightmare had on me. I was afraid for myself. I was afraid for Derek.

“Breakfast is ready on the veranda,” Ben called. He was rubbing his hair dry, oblivious of my still trembling form.

I dragged myself out of the bed. I can’t keep waking up this way. I might’ve left The Shade, but the island and all its horrors were still right with me.

I pulled my hair up in a messy bun as I made my way to the veranda. I needed the sunlight to draw the lurking shadows away. Breakfast consisted of muesli, coffee and fruit salad. I would’ve preferred some toast with jam and butter, but I wasn’t in a particularly picky mood.

Ben joined me not long after I settled down in my seat.

“Mom and Dad are on their way to pick us up. We might end up staying here a couple more days. Apparently, they made a whole fuss with the police when we disappeared…” He sat across me, looking bothered.

I cringed. “I was afraid of that. We’ll have to talk to the police, probably even a social worker…”

“So what’s our story going to be?” He leaned back in his seat, rolling a grape around on his plate. “We ran away? That’s it?”

“I guess we could just keep it simple by keeping our mouths shut. We ran away. Period. No need to give them any details.”

“Unless…” Ben began drumming his fingers over the top of the table.

“Unless what?” I pushed my bowl away. It seemed neither one of us had much of an appetite that morning.

“Unless we just tell them the truth. The whole truth.”

I knew it was an option, but for reasons I couldn’t fully understand, something inside me was violently screaming against it. “We can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“What are we going to tell them? We were abducted by vampires and taken to an invisible island to be their slaves? … We don’t even know where The Shade is. They’re going to think we’re insane.”

“So what? We met people there… I’m sure someone out there has reported them missing… How else would we have known about them?”

I shook my head. “We can’t. Derek trusted us by letting us escape. We can’t betray…”

“So there it is then! The truth. You don’t want to talk about The Shade because of him. What did he do to you, Sofia? It’s like you’re possessed by this inexplicable urge to please him.”

The words stung. I couldn’t look Ben in the eye. I didn’t know why. I wished I knew why. “It’s not just Derek. I’m sorry, Ben, but I just can’t… Not this way.”

A knock on the door interrupted our conversation. I could feel Ben’s eyes threatening to burn holes through me, but he eventually stood up and answered the door. From the veranda, I could hear his mother, Amelia, sobbing.

“Where’s Sofia, Ben? Is she with you?” Little Abby sounded cautious.

If his father, Lyle, was there, he certainly wasn’t talking much. It took a couple of minutes before Ben eventually came out to fetch me. “The police are here. They want to ask us some questions.”

“And what’s our answer going to be?”

He ground his teeth before responding. “We ran away.”

They spent a considerable amount of time getting us to talk. They kept telling us that we could tell them the truth, that we didn’t have to be afraid. They tried their best to pry any information about where we were, how we managed to keep ourselves hidden, how we survived. We remained true to our decision. Ben never even hinted about The Shade. Just like me, he kept silent about it and I was grateful for it. I knew he couldn’t understand why I refused to give The Shade away – heck, even I didn’t understand – but he supported me and I thought the world of him for it.

The police eventually gave up. Running away wasn’t a punishable crime, and unless they were charging us with a crime, we had no more reason to talk.

It took three days before all the necessary paper work and police reports were done to get Ben and me cleared to go back to California. The physical examinations brought about a new onslaught of questions. They didn’t find anything wrong with me, but there was no hiding the scars on Ben’s body.

I would never be able to forget the look on Amelia’s eyes when she saw the scars. It felt like I was being torn apart when she looked at Ben and me – eyes pleading – and cried, “Who did this? Why won’t you tell us who did this?”

It was the first time I ever saw Lyle so angry. “Sofia, where were you? What happened to both of you?”

I could sense Ben’s eyes on me – eating away at my conscience. Even then, I couldn’t… I couldn’t tell them about The Shade. “I’m so sorry,” was all I managed to say, head bowed down and tears streaming down my eyes.

I expected Ben to tell them everything right then, but he held his ground. Lyle and Amelia tried to pry information out of us. They screamed, they begged, they threatened… Neither Ben nor I said anything about the vampires.

Finally, everything came to an end when Ben sighed in exasperation and said, “Can we please just go home? I’m exhausted.”